Tuesdays with Story

For about one hundred years now (actually since fifth grade) I have been interested in writing. I can still remember word for word the first poem I wrote back then. I attended parochial school in Appleton for nine years and, in sixth grade, I won a diocese wide essay contest. That really exacerbated my love for writing. I wrote for the school papers, and for my English classes. In high school my English teachers sent some of my essays to National Scholastic Magazine– sadly, none were published. I attended Oshkosh State Teachers’ College for one year. That’s what it was called ‘back in the day.’ Today it’s U.W. at Oshkosh.

Then came love and marriage. During those ‘nineteen–fifties’ years, contests of ‘twenty-five words or less’ were popular. I entered two local ones, and won first place in both. The prize was an electric train—in each! With two daughters, guess who was the uber-excited recipient of these– my husband.  When my husband got his engineering credits we transferred to San Antonio, Tex. Our suburb was new, and had a contest asking for ‘twenty-five words or less’ about why we moved to Harmony Hills. I won that contest and two large trees from a neighborhood nursery.
Five years later my husband received a promotion, which landed us in Houston. During the fourteen years that we were there, we made a trip through Europe—just the two of us with my sister and her husband. A month of memories. Both the men are gone now.

I had a twenty-seven year career with ‘Ma Bell,’ and it mostly involved marketing and dealing with the public. During these years there was no time for writing. Our Houston years ended when my husband was made a regional manager and  transferred to Greenwich Conn. We lived in North Jersey near Morristown. During the five years that we were there we missed Texas and our daughters who were still in Houston. We took early retirement to the Texas Hill Country town of New Braunfels.  A year later I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. After aggressive chemo and reconstruction, we traveled widely, both to Europe and the American West. I also joined a garden club. I wrote publicity and also some special features from the club to the local paper. I realized I still loved writing. I am also an avid reader.

For nine years before my husband became ill, I worked as a volunteer, calling on breast cancer patients. Intimidating at first, I found it therapeutic. The same applies to my time with Tuesdays With Story. All of you seem better trained than I, and I view you as my  ‘professors.’ I feel I am learning from the critiques, and am currently working on my first novel.